[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]In the last couple weeks, the online blacksmithing and bladesmithing community that Aurelie had joined several months ago had been abuzz with discussions about marketing and advertising, of all things. On one hand, the red-haired smith could sort of grasp why. Even the smiths who weren't running a business and trying to make money, like her, still wanted to get their name out there and achieve some kind of name recognition.

And these days, good ol' word of mouth just wasn't enough anymore, just like a good ol' coal forge and hand hammer couldn't do nearly as much anywhere as fast as a propane forge and a power hammer. Aurelie had set up a basic website and listed her business on PokeMaps as soon as she'd set up shop in Lilycove City a year ago, and she was pretty sure it'd helped a ton.

On the other hand, the hottest topic the other smiths were discussing most excitedly in the forums was something that Aurelie had never even thought of, let alone considered: social media influencers. Of course, she'd seen them before on the internet. You could hardly watch a video on PokeTube without seeing some influencer's video pop up in your Recommended list, relentelessly hawking makeup, kitchen appliances, or workout clothes.

Personally, Aurelie always rolled her eye at those videos and clicked on something else. Apparently, though, someone was watching them. Several of the established blacksmiths that she respected most in the community were raving in their posts about how much it'd helped them to connect with a major influencer and how much business that influencer had brought them from their audience.

"There's no way!" Aurelie gasped aloud in amazement at one point as a well-known blacksmith shared numbers and figures for orders and commissions before and after sponsoring a famous influencer. If her single eye could have rolled with shiny Pokedollar signs like a carton character, it would have at that moment.

Then she gasped again when he talked about how much he'd paid the influencer in question. "Ugh, no..." Aurelie groaned, rubbing a hand across her forehead. "There's no way..."

Someone else brought up the possibility of micro-influencers, though, which piqued her interest anew. Another smith even provided a listing of macro- and micro-influencers that had indicated they were open to new partnerships and collaborations from businesses. Is this a possibility? Aurelie thought, pursing her lips as she scrolled down the list of names, photos, and profiles. Would any of them even be interested in someone like me?

At last, she let out a long sigh and shrugged. I mean, it can't hurt to try, right? I mean, an email is free to send, and I sure want to score some of those huge orders!

So, Aurelie wrote down the names and email addresses of several influencers that seemed relevant to her shop or just plain caught her eye. There was an art influencer who prided themselves on discovering new artists, to a cooking and food influencer that she hoped to impress with her kitchen knives and pots, to a strikingly attractive woman with pink-and-black hair just because Aurelie liked her style. She took a deep breath and began composing a hopefully professional-sounding first message to send out to their listed business email addresses, adjusting and personalizing as needed for names and themes.

Maybe, maybe one of them would write back and be interested. And maybe someday Digletts will fly, she thought wryly. But here goes...

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT